A fix for your modding addiction

Tube Map Radio PCB by Yuri Suzuki

It’s certainly a good thing that really interesting things still exist among contemporary art and the Tube Map Radio PCB project is a good example of that. Created by a japanese artist/designer Yuri Suzuki with the help of Masahiko Shindo, the Tube Map Radio PCB is a map of the London Underground, designed as a printed circuit board of a working radio.

A general view of the Tube Map Radio PCB

A view at the entire Tube Map Radio PCB

What’s interesting is that the modern map of the London Underground was created in the 30’s of last century by Harry Beck, an engineering draftsman. While creating the map of the metro system, Harry used an approach which was radical at the time, since he refused to align his map of the metro system to the actual geographical map — instead, he made the map in the style of electric circuits, with which he previously worked. It turned out that that such a map of the metro system is understandable and useful not only to electronics engineers, but regular folks as well, which in turn have made it popular.

A close up on the circuit board

The PCB has a lot of components

An angle view of the PCB

Yuri turned Harry’s approach on its head and turned the map of the London Underground into an electronic circuit, which also acts as a printed circuit board (PCB) of a working radio. Currently the Tube Map Radio PCB is exhibited at the Design Museum in London. If you are interested in this work, you learn more about it by watching the embedded video and visiting Yuri’s blog.